


Distinction

by thedevilchicken



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Developing Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missions, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 14:52:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken
Summary: Obi-Wan is not entirely sure how he got into this.





	Distinction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TwoMenAndAGuava](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoMenAndAGuava/gifts).



Obi-Wan is not entirely sure how he got into this. 

Ostensibly, it was the mission, but that's not the neat and tidy explanation that he'd like it to be when the fact is, months have passed since then. He could have almost understood one ill-advised evening coming of that night's events, all things considered. He could have almost understood a series of ill-advised evenings, repetitions that might have then petered back out again once they all came to their senses - he could have understood that at least ten times more easily than he can understand this. But here they are, together again. 

It's usually Cody who makes the first move, because they all know Obi-Wan still has his lingering Jedi objections even now that make this difficult for him, and Rex has two superior officers with him in the room. Usually, once the doors are locked behind them, Cody takes off his gloves and runs his rough fingers over Obi-Wan's clothed shoulders, or else runs them through Obi-Wan's tidy hair. Usually, Cody kisses him, and then things move on from there: a drink, conversation, then sometimes more. Tonight, though, they've brought Obi-Wan straight to his quarters from the medical bay. 

He's just spent a rather longer than average hour being checked extremely thoroughly by the med droids following a rescue mission. He's just been returned to his ship - Anakin had rather recklessly enlisted the 212th in addition to the 501st - after spending sixteen days held hostage, and up until now he's been just as upbeat and pragmatic as ever. Except the second Cody and Rex saw him in the med bay, he knew they saw just how false that was. He doesn't feel upbeat. There's no cheer left in him. He feels worn and tired and slightly sick. He feels angry and frustrated and he feels wound up tight inside. He's missed them both. He feels that sharply.

They go into his room. He takes a breath.

If he'd died out there, he knows he would have gone into the Force regretting never having told them he doesn't regret this.

\---

Sometimes, he thinks about how it started.

Ostensibly, it was the mission: a) the club was strictly couples only, b) the charming fellow enforcing the rules at the door seemed to be entirely resistant to tricks of the mind, and c) while he supposed he could have sent Cody and Rex in together rather than going in himself, he'd been doubtful that the proprietors of the particular establishment would have believed the two of them were in any kind of relationship. The captain and the commander might have been very much out of their usual white armour and wearing convincing civilian clothes, but they were both still very obviously clone troopers from the Grand Army of the Republic. 

He decided it wasn't worth the risk to the success of the mission just to keep himself out of it, much as he would have preferred that. So, he told them the plan and he let them choose amongst themselves whether it was Cody or Rex that would accompany him. They played some kind of unfamiliar hand game to decide on that, standing in the darkened alley by the club while Obi-Wan politely pretended not to watch and they politely pretended not to notice, then Rex stepped forward. 

"We decided it's me, sir," he said. 

Obi-Wan nodded curtly. "Then we should start," he replied, and he turned to exit the alley, but Cody coughed pointedly and he turned back toward him with raised brows, hands on hips. "Am I missing something, commander?"

"It's just that frankly, general, you look a lot like a Jedi," Cody said, and gestured at him with one hand, one long sweep directed at his robes and his cloak and the lightsaber hanging from his belt. Obi-Wan looked down at himself with a wince of concession; he _did_ look a lot like a Jedi and there was really no denying it. He looked like the very archetype of a Jedi because that had been his aspiration, as if by conforming in that way he would conform naturally in all others. 

He glanced from one man to the other. "Recommendations?" he asked.

Cody appeared to consider this for a moment and then told him, "Give your cloak and your tunic to Rex, general. The situation's salvageable." 

So, he took off his cloak and he untucked his tunic and once he was standing there in his long-sleeved undershirt, his cloak and tunic draped over one of Rex's arms, Cody took off his black leather jacket and handed it to him. Obi-Wan paused for a second with it hanging from his hands in the odd alley light and then he put it on. It was warm from Cody's body and a little on the large side across the chest - unsurprising given the difference in their respective stature - but Obi-Wan doubted anyone would notice that, and much less care if they did. He unclipped his lightsaber from his belt and tucked it into the inside pocket, against his chest, over his heart.

"Better?" he asked, holding out his arms and turning a quick circle to model the change as Rex handed Obi-Wan's now neatly folded clothes to Cody. The two of them shared a look between them that Obi-Wan quite straightforwardly could not read at all. He found that strangely disconcerting.

"Better," Cody said, with a sharp nod as Rex kept quiet. "But you're still not ready for this." 

"Oh?" Obi-Wan tilted his head, his hands returning to his hips. "Do you have an idea?"

"Yes, sir," Cody said, waving the two of them closer together with his one free hand, and Rex took a couple of shuffling side-steps toward him. 

"Arm around the general's shoulders, Rex," Cody said. "You're meant to be a couple on a night out, not soldiers marching to a funeral." 

Rex glanced sidelong at Obi-Wan, then he did as Cody instructed; he looped one arm around Obi-Wan's back, his hand settling at his far shoulder, pressing them together just lightly from rib cage down to hip. Obi-Wan could feel his face start to warm. He was grateful that the alley they were standing in was somewhat lacking in light.

"Arm around the captain's waist, general," Cody continued. "You're meant to be his lover, not his property." 

Obi-Wan wrapped one arm around Rex's waist, obediently and rather awkwardly, over the back of his jacket. Leather squeaked against leather.

"You look like spies," Cody said. 

"Well, we _are_ spies," Obi-Wan pointed out. 

"I think the commander's trying to say we should at least try _not_ to look like spies, general," Rex said, turning his head to him. He was so close Obi-Wan could see the stubble that was starting to stand out on his jaw and all the lines in his lips that were somehow completely different to Cody's. He stepped away, faintly exasperated. 

"In that case, you should probably call me Obi-Wan rather than general," Obi-Wan said. "That might seem a little suspicious." 

He watched Rex try not to smile at that, the corners of his lips quirking slightly. 

"Yes, sir," Rex said. Obi-Wan raised his brows; this time, Rex raised one hand to his mouth to hide the smile he couldn't stifle. "Yes, _Obi-Wan_ ," Rex corrected. 

"Should I still call you Rex?" Obi-Wan asked. 

"Well, it's my name," Rex replied. He quirked one brow. "Unless you want to call me Cody." 

Obi-Wan watched as Rex's gaze flickered off to the side for a second to where Cody was standing, a few paces back from Obi-Wan's right shoulder. Then he looked at him again and his smile was gone. Rex looked serious. 

"Do you want to call me Cody, sir?" he asked. 

Obi-Wan frowned. "Do I--"

He heard Cody step forward. He felt Cody's hand on his shoulder, felt Cody's chest press against his back, cutting him off mid-sentence. 

"Rex wants to know if you want to pretend he's me," Cody said, from behind him, right by his ear, and something inside Obi-Wan seemed to clench and warm and tense and shiver. 

"Why would--"

"Don't pretend you don't remember," Cody said, lowly, and he wrapped one arm around Obi-Wan's waist, his hand resting flat over his stomach. 

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. "I remember," he said. 

\---

When he thinks about how it started, sometimes he thinks it was the mission and sometimes, he thinks, it was actually months before that. Standing there at that moment, leaning back just a fraction against Cody's chest, he _knew_ it was months before that - there had been something between him and Commander Cody for a little more than eighteen months by then, though the exact date depended entirely on which milestone he counted from. 

It was twenty months since they'd spent three days trapped alone together in the wreck of their downed transport, on a planet with no breathable atmosphere. Sitting there together, awaiting the rescue they were assured would come (once Anakin succeeded in disentangling himself from General Grievous's forces), Obi-Wan found Cody's glances sometimes lingered on him longer than was absolutely necessary. He remembers the warm feeling in his chest and in his cheeks when Cody caught him looking back. 

It was nineteen months since a hard hike over freezing, mountainous terrain to find a secret Separatist lab where the ships couldn't land, sleeping in hastily pitched tents that really couldn't keep the cold out. The men grouped off in twos or threes and Obi-Wan supposed it made sense that he share his tent with Cody, as the two most senior officers assigned to the mission. Cody stretched out to sleep in his insulated armour, his comms turned off but his helmet still on, and Obi-Wan shivered under his cloak inside his sleeping bag for hours on end, until his teeth actually chattered. Cody shifted. Obi-Wan couldn't tell what he was doing in the dark, until Cody unzipped his bag and settled one arm over Obi-Wan's waist. He'd taken off his armour, though they both knew he'd be colder without it. He kept Obi-Wan warm all night without a single word. In the morning, all Cody did was smile a small, wry smile and say, "Well, what kind of trooper would I be if I let my Jedi freeze in the night before we got the job done?" But Obi-Wan still felt like there was a lot more to it, even if he also wondered if that was just his own ridiculous wishful thinking. 

It was eighteen months since the Jedi Temple's medical bay, where Obi-Wan was treated for a rather extreme dose of dehydration and minor though moderately widespread burns, from overexposure to a remote system's binary suns on a mission gone awry. Cody visited, and Obi-Wan knew that he was only there to check on him even though they spent at least a few minutes together discussing their next mission, the one that Anakin would be taking over while he was incapacitated. Cody sat by the bed and kept him company for just over half an hour, until it would have seemed strange if he'd stayed any longer. He knew why Cody had come and when he thanked him for that, he found he hoped Cody knew he knew. 

Three days later, the mission succeeded but Cody was taken to a med bay of his own. Once he was stable enough to be moved, Obi-Wan quietly arranged his transfer to the Temple. 

"General?" Cody said when he woke, still groggy from the medication. He glanced around the room and frowned, then looked back to Obi-Wan in the chair beside his bed. "General, what am I doing in the Jedi Temple?"

"I'm afraid that's my doing," Obi-Wan said, a little sheepishly. "I still have a few more days before I'm due to be discharged." 

"So you had me brought to you?"

Obi-Wan smiled, the expression just a little self-deprecating around the edges. "I'm ashamed to say I took advantage of my position to do exactly that." 

Cody's hand found his and squeezed. Cody's eyes closed as he smiled. "I'm glad you did sir," he said, then he drifted off again.

They spent four days there together, convalescing in their neighbouring beds, making small talk, taking meetings that the doctors frowned on not terribly discreetly. They were discharged at the same time, on the same day, Cody back to the barracks and Obi-Wan to his quarters, with light duties prescribed for the next few days before they were due to ship back out again. Obi-Wan almost let him go once they exited the room; Cody nodded at him, back in his armour that the doctors told them Rex had brought down while they'd both been sleeping, his helmet tucked in under his arm, and Obi-Wan nodded back and started to turn because their destinations were in different directions. But he stopped. He turned back and took three quick steps and caught Cody's arm. 

Cody glanced down at Obi-Wan's hand there at the plate over his forearm and then back up again. "General?" he said. 

"Cody..." Obi-Wan moved his hand and tucked both of them behind his back. He winced. "I apologise, commander. It's of no importance. I didn't mean to delay you."

Cody raised his brows. "You'll pardon me, sir, but come off it," he said. 

"Excuse me?"

"I think it's important. I think it's so important you had me brought over here even though we both know you're not supposed to." 

"I think we may have had a slight misunderstanding." 

"No misunderstanding, sir." 

"I can assure you, commander--"

"I'm not going to tell anyone, sir. It'd be my hide as well as yours." 

"I don't know--"

"Do you want me to make the first move, sir?"

Obi-Wan cringed. He leaned back against the corridor wall.

"Yes," he said. "I rather think you'll have to."

Seventeen months earlier, Cody had stepped close and cupped Obi-Wan's bearded jaw in his gloved hands. Seventeen months earlier, Cody had looked him in the eye and then he kissed him on the mouth, and he's wanted it.

"I remember," Obi-Wan said, in the alley, by the club. They'd never talked about it, that day or any time that followed, but Obi-Wan had never managed to forget.

He had his eyes closed, but only for a moment longer. When he opened them, he was looking at Rex. 

"Pretend he's me," Cody said, by his ear, then he stepped away again. 

Obi-Wan understood. Rex knew. 

\---

It didn't go much further. Not that night, at least.

Obi-Wan reached out to Rex's shoulder with one uncertain hand. He slipped that hand to the side of Rex's neck, palm over his steady pulse, and then he stepped in closer. He remembers how thrilling that moment was, knowing Rex knew, knowing what Cody was proposing. He remembers telling himself it was fine, it was for the good of the mission, but he's honestly not sure that he believed that even then.

"Commander," he said, though he was looking at Rex, with his unscarred face and his dyed hair. He would have known him even without. "Cody." 

"Sir," Rex replied, and all Obi-Wan could think, as Rex lifted his hands to Obi-Wan's waist and rested them underneath his open, borrowed jacket, was that he didn't even _sound_ like Cody. Not really. Obi-Wan moved his hand, brushed the pad of his thumb over the curve of Rex's bottom lip. He didn't even _look_ like Cody. Not really. Not when he knew exactly where to look. They were different, but he found those differences fascinated him.

That night, it was almost two months since Zygerria. It was almost two months since Kadavo. Two months since he'd been held with Rex in the slave camp, and he realised that when he thought of Cody, sometimes he thought of Rex, too. Perhaps, after the rescue, Cody had seen the way he looked at Rex was almost the same way he looked at him. The two weren't the same, and he knew that, but the way he felt about each wasn't so very different.

He stepped in. He leaned in. And, as his mouth neared Rex's, the club's back door swung open nearby; a harassed-looking bartender wandered out to smoke and as he turned the other corner, with not so much as a glance in their direction, Cody darted out and caught the door before it could close. They all knew they no longer had a use for their not particularly witty ruse; a minute to rearrange their clothes, and they slipped inside, no scrutiny required. 

When the mission was done, intelligence gathered, they went their separate ways. As he made his way back to the Temple, Obi-Wan told himself he wasn't disappointed. As he took off his clothes, as he closed his eyes in bed and ran one hand down to his cock, he tried not to think of all the other ways things might have gone.

It didn't go much further that night. Three nights later, though, it did, when all three found themselves on the way to Naboo; they had a drink in Obi-Wan's quarters, sitting at the table, and then Cody stood and he took off his gloves. He cupped Obi-Wan's face in his bare hands, kissed his forehead and then turned to Rex instead and Obi-Wan watched, from his seat, as they helped each other with their armour. He watched, from his seat, as they stripped each other bare. He watched as they kissed, as they knelt on his bed, as Rex's teeth found Cody's neck or the lobe of his ear, as Cody caught their stiffening cocks together in his hands.

"You can just watch, if you like," Rex said, as Cody stroked. "But we'd like you to join us, sir. If you want to, that is." 

He wanted to, that much was evident, if just from the stiffness of his cock. But it wasn't till Cody and Rex left the bed and took his hands, till they stripped him, till their hands and mouths were on his skin, that he could let himself admit it.

That day with Cody in the corridor outside the Temple med bay, he knew he'd wanted more - he'd stroked himself in his room just twenty minutes later, while the whole experience was still fresh in his mind, still on the tip of his tongue. Later, he'd let Cody kiss him again. Later still, he'd let Cody touch him, just over the top of his robes like that much didn't really count for anything. He'd tried to pretend what they had was chaste, but it wasn't. And, that night in his room with Cody and Rex, it was even less so - he let them take him to bed. 

"Do you want to call my Cody?" Rex asked him, like that might make things easier, but he just shook his head. He didn't need that. He never has.

Cody had him first, then Rex did, and he wanted that; he wanted it when Cody rubbed his cock between his cheeks, teased his hole then fucked him slowly; he wanted it when Rex pushed him down on his back instead and pushed inside, cheeks flushed, hips straining, like nothing that he'd ever been allowed. Then Cody sat back against the headboard and Obi-Wan sat back between his legs, against his chest, and Rex leaned in to suck his cock. The two of them exhausted him, even if the bed was barely big enough for two and not at all for three. The fact they both had to leave soon after they were done made the events that night easier for him somehow.

Obi-Wan's not entirely sure how he got into this, if it was the mission that brought them together or something else entirely. But he won't pretend anymore that he regrets it, not with them.

\---

Usually, Cody starts it. It's a drink and polite conversation about their plans and their orders and sometimes about the wider war, and then Cody slowly steers it off toward the other thing that they all know he wants but also wants to deny. Tonight, though, when the doors are closed, Obi-Wan wraps his arms around Rex once his helmet's off. He holds on tight. He knows how close he came to death, and thus to losing this.

Tonight, Cody steps in behind him and loops his arms around them both. Obi-Wan is pinned there lightly in between two armoured chest plates, but the solidity of that feels like something he needs. Until, that is, Rex pulls back and Cody wraps his arms around Obi-Wan's waist and when Rex eventually steps back in, there's not a scrap of armour left. He feels human. Obi-Wan sometimes wonders if it ever mattered to him that they're both clones, but that's the least of his worries. 

It's Obi-Wan that starts it, when he pulls Rex into an unexpected kiss. And when they go to bed, in spite of everything, he's still not sure he has the words to say how much he wants this, in defiance of chains of command and all the oaths he's taken. He wants _them_ , separately, together, for all the ways they're similar and all the ways they're not.

He doesn't know how to say it. So he'll try to show them instead.


End file.
